Assata
Shakur News

Cuba Won’t Hand Over Assata Shakur 12/23/2014 The Root: "Vidal
pointed out that the U.S. has also sheltered wanted Cuban citizens. “We’ve
reminded the U.S. government that in its country they’ve given shelter to
dozens and dozens of Cuban citizens,” she said. “Some of them accused of
horrible crimes, some accused of terrorism, murder and kidnapping, and in
every case, the U.S. government has decided to welcome them.”"

Despite Warming Relations, Cuba Will Not Hand Over Assata Shakur 12/23/2014 Vibe: "Josefina
Vidal, head of Cuba's North American Affairs told the Associated Press the
country has no plans of giving Shakur up despite warming relations between
the two nations who were once at odds for nearly half a century. "Every
nation has sovereign and legitimate rights to grant political asylum to
people it considers to have been persecuted. ...That’s a legitimate
right,” Vidal said. “We’ve explained to the U.S. government in the past
that there are some people living in Cuba to whom Cuba has legitimately
granted political asylum. There’s no extradition treaty in effect between
Cuba and the U.S.,” she added."

Cuba says it has a right to grant asylum to US fugitives 12/22/2014 AP: "Obama’s
announcement included a very general list of reforms and left a series of
open questions about how far the U.S. could go to create deeper economic
ties with Cuba. The Commerce and Treasury departments are expected to
begin publishing details of the new measures in coming weeks, changes that
will include relaxation of the stringent rules governing American travel
to Cuba."

Hands Off Assata: Protests Can Protect the Revolutionary Fugitive Again 12/22/2014 Truth
Out: "But according to a former Black Panther Party leader, a protest
movement that erupted in October 1998 organized by the Ad Hoc Coalition to
Keep Assata Free forced two members of the Black Congressional Caucus,
California Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Barbara Lee, to write a letter to
Fidel Castro apologizing for their vote. The two congresswomen also
traveled to Cuba in December 1998 to meet personally with Cuban officials
and distance themselves from the resolution. "If it wasn't for the
protests we organized in Washington, DC, that year, Assata may have been
captured then," said JoNina Ervin, a former Black Panther Party leader,
during an exclusive interview with Truthout on December 18. "We have to
stand up and speak out now to protect Assata again.""

Assata Shakur: What Does New U.S.-Cuba Pact Mean for Exiled Black Panther
Wanted in New Jersey? 12/19/2014 Democracy Now: "Well, New Jersey has
been outrageous about these cases. I mean, think about Assata’s case. And
think about driving while black in New Jersey. Think about what’s happened
from Ferguson to Garner in New York. And I ask you, "What do we think
about what happened to Assata?" And I agree with Marty: There is a 100
percent chance that she will not be forced out of Cuba. A hundred percent.
I don’t even question it. But, of course, you see New Jersey. They’ve
raised the reward on her to $10 million. The FBI put her on their most
wanted list, etc. So they’re clearly after her. But I’m completely
confident, as Marty is, that the Cubans will not have her extradited to
the United States."

After US and Cuba Announce Normalized Relations, Law Enforcement Officials
Eager to Bring Assata Shakur Back to US 12/18/2014 Atlanta Black
Star: "“We view any changes in relations with Cuba as an opportunity to
bring her back to the United States to finish her sentence for the murder
of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973,” Col. Rick Fuentes,
head of the state’s largest law enforcement agency, said in a statement.
“We stand by the reward money and hope that the total of two million
dollars will prompt fresh information in the light of this altered
international relationship.” Fuentes told the Los Angeles Times in a phone
interview that he has already discussed the issue with federal law
enforcement officials. “Chesimard isn’t the only fugitive down there
wanted for a violent crime, and she’s already been convicted, so it’s a
matter of bringing her back and sending her back to jail,” he said.
“There’s other people that surround her that Castro has taken a liking to
and it’s been very, very difficult in their particular cases to have
discussions to get them out.”"

US-Cuban Friendship Might Mean Prison for Assata Shakur 12/18/2014 Jezebel: "Hopefully
in this time of cops shooting black men with their hands up, choking them
to death on camera and gassing those speaking out, President Obama and the
U.S. State Department can think of a better use for their diplomatic
conversations than 'Hey, let's finally imprison that woman America framed
nearly 50 year ago.'"

As U.S.-Cuba tension thaws, the fate of a fugitive is in question 12/18/2014 MSNBC: "Whether
or not Cuba decides to extradite Shakur, of course, remains to be seen.
The country has had an extradition treaty with the U.S. since 1904, but it
hasn’t really been enforced during the Castro reign. There’s also a clause
in the treaty that says a fugitive criminal shall not be surrendered if
the “offense in respect of which his surrender is demanded be of a
political character,” which could apply to the Shakur case, said Douglas
McNabb, an international criminal defense lawyer who specializes in
extradition. But “any state can do anything they want, even if there is an
extradition treaty,” said McNabb. “From a policy standpoint, Cuba is going
to have to make a decision.” Stephen Vladeck, an expert on national
security law at American University College of Law, echoed that sentiment,
saying “So much of extradition law Is just politics. The real question is
whether the Cuban government decides it’s in its interest to cooperate
with New Jersey through the Justice Department.”"

From Michael Brown to Assata Shakur, the racist state of America persists 11/3/2014 Cuba
Si: by Angela Davis - "President Nixon’s law and order rhetoric entailed
the labelling of groups such as the Black Panther party as terrorist, and
I myself was similarly identified. But it was not until George W Bush
proclaimed a global war on terror in the aftermath of 11 September 2001
that terrorists came to represent the universal enemy of western
“democracy”. To retroactively implicate Assata Shakur in a putative
contemporary terrorist conspiracy is also to bring those who have
inherited her legacy, and who identify with continued struggles against
racism and capitalism, under the canopy of “terrorist violence”. Moreover,
the historical anti-communism directed at Cuba, where Assata lives, has
been dangerously articulated with anti-terrorism. The case of the Cuban 5
is a prime example of this."

Sundiata Acoli, Man Who Murdered State Trooper, To Be Released On Parole 9/29/2014 Huff
Post: "A man convicted in the shooting death of a New Jersey state trooper
in a crime that still provokes strong emotion among law enforcement more
than 40 years later was ordered released on parole by a state appeals
court Monday. Sundiata Acoli was known as Clark Edward Squire when he was
convicted of the 1973 slaying of state trooper Werner Foerster during a
stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Now in his mid-70s, he was denied parole
most recently in 2011, but the appellate judges reversed that ruling
Monday. In a 28-page opinion, the panel wrote that the parole board
ignored evidence favorable to Acoli and gave undue consideration to past
events such as a probation violation that occurred decades earlier."

Will Cuba extradite Assata Shakur to the US? 8/14/2014 The
Grio: "According to the National Lawyers Guild, who represented Shakur in
her final trial, the proceedings were plagued with constitutional
violations, including an all-white jury of 15 people, including five
jurors who had personal connections to state troopers. A state Assemblyman
spoke to jurors while they were sequestered, urging them to convict. “The
judge cut funding for additional expert defense testimony after medical
testimony demonstrated that Ms. Shakur—who had no gunpowder residues on
her fingers, and whose fingerprints were not found on any weapon at the
crime scene—was shot with her hands up and suffered injury to a critical
nerve in her right arm, making it anatomically impossible for her to fire
a weapon,” the Guild said in a statement."

Today’s activists should heed the story of Assata Shakur 7/21/2014 The
Guardian: "This history of systematic injustice provides the real context
for Shakur’s conviction and subsequent escape from prison, and explains
why the Cuban government continues to grant her political asylum. When we
acknowledge the scale of surveillance and covert policing that we face
today, the FBI’s renewed attempt to “recapture” Assata should disturb
every single one of us."

Sister Assata: This Is What American History Looks Like 5/11/2013 Alice
Walker: "I don’t know why, given where we are with dronefare, but I didn’t
expect the man making the announcement about Assata Shakur being the first
woman “terrorist” to appear on the FBI’s most wanted list to be black.
That was a blow. I was reminded of the world of “trackers” we sometimes
get glimpses of in history books and old movies on TV. ...And then there
were the “trackers” who helped the pattyrollers during our four hundred
years of enslavement. When pattyrollers (or patrols) caught run-away
slaves in those days they frequently beat them to death. I’ve often
thought of the black men whose expertise at tracking fugitives helped
bring these terrors, humiliations and deaths about. When I was younger I
would have been in a rage against them; not understanding the reality of
invisible coercion, and mind and spirit control, that I do now."

Target Assata: How the FBI and Cuba Bashers Are Going After a Black
Liberation Activist 5/9/2013 Alternet: by Bill Fletcher Jr - "In the
aftermath of the reelection of President Obama whispers started to be
heard suggesting that there might be efforts to take Cuba off the list of
countries that support terrorism. There were other whispers that further
suggested that there may be efforts aimed at normalizing relations with
Cuba. The frenzy in connection with Assata Shakur is precisely the sort of
step that those who wish to derail such efforts could either implement or
celebrate."

Why add woman to terrorist list now? 5/9/2013 The Tennesean: by
DeWayne Wickham - "The three people in the car were members of the Black
Liberation Army, one of many black organizations whose activities the FBI
distorted in a secret campaign of disinformation that lasted 15 years
until COINTELPRO was exposed and ended in 1971. While the FBI created its
list of most wanted terrorists in 2002, it waited 11 years to put her on
it. Why? Probably because the agency’s decision was as politicized as when
Director J. Edgar Hoover launched the controversial COINTELPRO.

Not Your Daddy's COINTELPRO: Obama Brands Assata Shakur "Most Wanted
Terrorist" 5/8/2013 Black Agenda Report: "It's been a week now since
the $2 million dollar bounty and “most wanted terrorist” announcement. In
that time, not a single nationally noted African American “leader” has
raised his or her voice. Not Ben Jealous. Not a single black mayor or
member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Not Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, and
certainly not the presidential lap dog Al Sharpton.
Sharpton has worn wires for the
FBI more than once, and is credibly accused of trying to get close to
people who were rumored to be close to Assata Shakur in the 1980s. Those
people wisely avoided Rev. Al. Such is the pressure of subservient
conformity among the black political class that not a single African
American politician, religious leader, or personage of national note has
opened his or her mouth in Assata Shakur's defense, with the solitary
exception of Angela Davis, once a political prisoner and fugitive in the
days before the word “terrorist” had been coined. Lockstep conformity like
this is hard to shake. In their 45 minutes in an otherwise excellent
Democracy Now show mostly devoted to Assata Shakur's case, neither
Shakur's attorney Lennox Hinds nor Angela Davis could bring themselves
even to hint that the president and attorney general were responsible for
branding her as the nation's “most wanted terrorist.”

Reflections on Anti-Cuban Terror 5/8/2013 MRZine: "The United States
recently simultaneously announced that Cuba will remain on its list of
terror-sponsoring states and that, conveniently enough, Assata Shakur was
being placed on the FBI's ten "most wanted terrorist" list, as well as
that the bounty for her capture and return to the United States was raised
to $2 million. Many legal observers, however, remain highly critical of
the prosecution and trial in 1977 through which she was convicted of
murdering a New Jersey policeman. Considering that Cuba is quite
blameless, refusing to engage in tit-for-tat, one may ask: Why have terror
attacks against Cuba continued?"

NLG Urges FBI to Respect Political Asylum Status of Assata Shakur 5/7/2013 CubaNews: “Through
her writing, Assasta Shakur has educated generations about how the FBI
operated with impunity to neutralize the Black Panther Party. Labeling
Assata a terrorist and putting a bounty on her head is a clear attempt by
U.S. authorities to hide this chapter in history,” said NLG Executive
Director Heidi Boghosian."

National Lawyers Guild Urges FBI to Respect Political Asylum Status of
Assata Shakur 5/7/2013 NLG: "“Clearly, the federal government is
continuing the unrestrained abuse of power by which it attempted to
destroy Assata Shakur and other Black individuals and groups by
surveillance, rumor, innuendo, eavesdropping, arrest and prosecution,
incarceration, and murder throughout the sixties and seventies,” said
Lennox Hinds, Shakur’s lawyer and a longtime NLG member."

How to find a most wanted terrorist 5/7/2013 Renew America: "In a
press release attacking the FBI, a group called the Center for
Constitutional Rights (CCR) asked, "Should the many who support Assata
Shakur now expect to be targeted for providing her 'material support?'"
The question is a serious one. It is against the law to harbor a fugitive.
In the United States, it is also against the law to provide material
support to terrorists, with "material support" defined as including expert
advice or assistance and communications equipment. This is why the CCR is
concerned about her designation as a Most Wanted Terrorist. The CRR,
funded by George Soros, is part of the "Hands off Assata Shakur!" movement
which wants to protect Chesimard's status as a fugitive cop-killer living
in Communist Cuba. In effect, they are supporting a terrorist. To
understand how the law works, consider that Lynne Stewart was convicted of
providing illegal support to a client, terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman,
responsible for the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. She is now
serving 10 years in prison. Her legal defense was underwritten in part by
the Open Society Institute of George Soros."

Assata Shakur Is Not a Terrorist 5/7/2013 The Nation: "“It’s
incredibly frustrating that the first woman to be on the FBI’s most wanted
terrorist list, the same list as Osama bin Laden, would be a 65 year-old
grandmother in Cuba,” writer and filmmaker dream hampton told radio host
Davey D. I would add that it’s also incredibly frightening. We have seen
the way this country has prosecuted the “war on terror,” even after moving
away from using that specific phrase, with a blatant disregard for civil
liberties, human rights, international law and the rights of sovereign
countries. It’s enough to make one very concerned for the safety of Shakur
and those around her. If deemed dangerous enough, could an invasion of
Cuba be far behind? A drone strike? How far is this government willing to
go to capture (kill?) someone whose guilt in the crime for which she was
convicted is not clear and poses no threat to the country’s security?"

Finally, Cuba Is Harboring a Terrorist! 5/4/2013 Havana Times: "It
seems unlikely that the announcement of her transformation from criminal
to terrorist coincidently occurred the day after the State Department was
supposed to release its annual report “justifying” the continued inclusion
of Cuba on its list of countries that “provide critical support to
non-state terrorist groups and repeatedly provides support for acts of
international terrorism.” The publication of this report has been delayed;
perhaps to update it with this new information."

Assata Shakur: Understanding the politics behind the FBI's new attack 5/4/2013 Liberation: "Assata
had been, following police instructions, standing with her hands in the
air, when she was shot by Trooper Harper more than once, including a
bullet to the back. Trooper Harper lied and said he had seen Shakur reach
for a gun, a claim he later recanted. He also claimed she had been in a
firing position, something a surgeon who examined her said was
“anatomically impossible." The same surgeon said it was “anatomically
necessary” for her arms to have been raised for her to receive the bullet
wounds she did. Tests done by the police found that Shakur had not fired a
gun, and no physical or medical evidence was presented by the prosecution
to back up their claim that she had fired a gun at Trooper Harper."

FBI Billboards not about Assata Shakur, it is about politically repressing
the Black community 5/3/2013 Black Talk Radio: "Is Assata Shakur in
New Jersey? No, she is not and the FBI and the Obama administration know
exactly where she is, in Cuba where she has lived since being granted
political asylum by its government in 1979 after escaping from prison.
This is not about Assata Shakur, it is about sending a message to the
Black community and those that live within it who stand up to police
violence, oppression and murder of residents, one of the very reasons for
the formation of the Black Panthers. It is about the political repression
of those who advocate on the behalf of the many political prisons being
held by the United States government often in torturous conditions. It is
about sending a message to anyone who would take up arms in defense of
life, liberty and true freedom in a country that is home to the largest
prison population in the world which the federal government and various
corporations use as slave labor."

CCR Condemns FBI's Adding of Former Black Panther Assata Shakur to Its
"Most Wanted Terrorist" List 5/3/2013 Center for Constitutional
Rights: "Forty years later, the government continues to bend the law to
silence dissent, from increased surveillance, to the occupation of Black
and Latino communities by aggressive police forces, to the passage of
vague and overbroad material support laws and the expanding use of the
term terrorist to redefine what should be state-level crimes. Should the
many who support Assata Shakur now expect to be targeted for providing her
“material support”? Now that our government routinely targets and kills
people around the world without any due process, what can we expect next?
"Forty years later, the government continues to bend the law to silence
dissent, from increased surveillance, to the occupation of Black and
Latino communities by aggressive police forces, to the passage of vague
and overbroad material support laws and the expanding use of the term
terrorist to redefine what should be state-level crimes. Should the many
who support Assata Shakur now expect to be targeted for providing her
“material support”? Now that our government routinely targets and kills
people around the world without any due process, what can we expect next?"

Angela Davis and Assata Shakur’s Lawyer Denounce FBI’s Adding of Exiled
Activist to Terrorists List 5/3/2013 Democracy Now: "It seems to me
that this act incorporates or reflects the very logic of terrorism," Davis
says. "I can’t help but think that it’s designed to frighten people who
are involved in struggles today. Forty years ago seems like it was a long
time ago. In the beginning of the 21st century, we’re still fighting
around the very same issues — police violence, healthcare, education,
people in prison."

Assata Shakur in Her Own Words: Rare Recording of Activist Named to FBI
Most Wanted Terrorists List 5/3/2013 Democracy Now: "As a result of
being targeted by [the FBI program] COINTELPRO, I was faced with the
threat of prison, underground, exile or death," Shakur said at the time.
"I am not the first, nor the last, person to be victimized by the New
Jersey system of 'justice.' The New Jersey State Police are infamous for
their racism and brutality." Hear Shakur read the letter in full on
SoundCloud."

Why the Hunt for Assata Shakur Matters 5/3/2013 Huff Post: "First, by
elevating this 40-year-old case to top priority, Obama's Justice
Department is actively memorializing the struggle for black freedom of
that era, but in a way that offers us a criminalized, even militarized
interpretation of it. How we understand the past has bearing on our
political present, and making Shakur, a symbol of black militancy of the
1960s and '70s, into a high-level national security threat serves to
criminalize the greatest movement for democracy in the 20th century.
What's more, fashioning this morality tale erases the central role of the
FBI's COINTELPRO in her controversial case, a willed forgetting of the
well-documented framings, murders, and false imprisonments aimed at the
black liberation movement and others of that era, as opposed to a
clear-eyed assessment of the disputed facts on the ground."

Political calculus keeps Cuba on U.S. list of terror sponsors 5/3/2013 LA
Times: "But nothing that Cuba has done suggests its government is plotting
harm against Americans, national security experts say. And they criticize
as counterproductive the State Department’s decision, disclosed this week,
to keep Cuba on its list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” “We ought to
reserve that term for nations that actually use the apparatus of statehood
to support the targeting of U.S. interests and civilians,” said Juliette
Kayyem, a former assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the
Department of Homeland Security and now writing and lecturing on national
security in the Boston area. “Yes, Cuba does a lot of bad things that we
don’t like, but it doesn’t rise to anything on the level of a terrorist
threat.”

The FBI’s Political Decision to Put Assata Shakur on Its List of ‘Most
Wanted Terrorists’ 5/3/2013 The Dissenter: "If we look at the trial,
we’ll find that she was victimized, she was shot. She was shot in the
back. The bullet exited and broke the clavicle in her shoulder. She could
not raise a gun. She could not raise her hand to shoot. And she was shot
while her hands were in the air. Now, that is the forensic evidence. There
is not one scintilla of evidence placing a gun in her hand. No arsenic
residue was found on her clothing or on her hands. So, the allegation by
the state police that she took an officer’s gun and shot him, executed him
in cold blood, is not only false, but it is designed to inflame."

Supporters Say 'Hands Off Assata' Shakur 5/3/2013 The Root: "Many
prominent blacks, from Angela Davis to Roland Martin, are speaking out in
support of Shakur, and many folks on Twitter are expressing displeasure at
the FBI as well. The hashtag #HandsOffAssata is being used to show support
for Shakur online. Some of the tweets from the hashtag are below."

Woman Makes Most-Wanted List 40 Years After Murder 5/2/2013 Newser: "The
reward for the former member of the Black Liberation Army has been doubled
to $2 million, reports the Record, which spoke with the State Police
superintendent, who reveals he still has two detectives on the case. What
officials know: She enjoys "rock star status" in Cuba, complete with a
free place to live, thanks to her willingness to be an anti-American
"propaganda specialist" for the Castro regime; she has even been invited
to greet foreign delegations that arrive in the country."

U.S. officials: Cuba will be kept on list of nations that sponsor
terrorism 5/1/2013 Miami Herald: "Opponents of U.S. sanctions on the
island’s communist government have been lobbying hard for months to remove
Cuba from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism as a
gesture toward improved bilateral relations. The Boston Globe reported in
February that U.S. diplomats had concluded Cuba should be taken off the
list. Another news report a month later said Cuba’s removal might be
announced when the Country Report on Terrorism, also managed by the State
Department, is issued."

Diluting the terror watch lists 4/29/2013 Boston Globe: "The Boston
Globe’s Bryan Bender reported this year that Secretary of State John Kerry
was reviewing the policy, hoping to thaw relations with Cuba and make the
terrorist state sponsor list be about terrorism. It’s not clear if Kerry’s
views will prevail."

32 Years of Assata Shakur and The Prison Industrial Complex 11/2/2011 Black
Youth Project: Assata - “Never in our history has critical resistance to
the status quo been more important. The growth of the Prison-Industrial
complex has been appallingly rapid and the escalating repression that has
accompanied it is totally alarming. What future lies ahead of us? What are
the implications for our children?”

Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly faceoff over White House's poetry invitation
to rapper Common 5/17/2011 NY Daily News: "Stewart argued that the
Grammy-winning artist wasn't "celebrating" Assata Shakur, who was involved
in a deadly New Jersey shootout, but simply believed she was convicted
unjustly and expressed that in the song. Further, the Comedy Central host
argued, O'Reilly's standard of outlawing White House performances by any
musical defender of convicted killers would mean that Bob Dylan, Bono and
Bruce Springsteen couldn't perform at the White House either."

Common gets a bad rap on Assata Shakur 5/14/2011 Guardian: "So, cue
conservative outrage over Michelle Obama's inviting rapper Common to a
White House poetry reading, because Common wrote an adulatory song about
Black Panther Assata Shakur. The New Jersey state police protested. Is it
possible that the vile New Jersey police – just this week it was announced
that Newark's police department is being investigated by the justice
department for multiple civil rights violations – and their rightwing
puppetmasters do not know about COINTELPRO? That while Soviet tanks
crushed Prague's spring, in America, police assassins, provocateurs and
slanderers felled our saints as they slept?"

NJ Cops Protest Common's White House Visit Over Assata Shakur Track 5/11/2011 All
Hip Hop: "The head of the union that represents the New Jersey State
Police has spoken out against Common's visit to the White House tonight
(May 11th). Common is among the guests to attend the White House's
celebration of American poetry, which is being hosted by President Barack
Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama... During an interview with NBC New
York, David Jones, President of the State Troopers Fraternal Association
Union, took offense to the lyrics in Common's track "A Song for Assata."

Common A SonG for Assata Shakur (2pac's aunt) 11/5/2010 YouTube: "assata
shakur (2pacs aunt) had to flee to cuba after being charged of crimes she
did not commit, she fled to cuba under political asylum. and the u.s.
gov't poasted a 1 million dollar reward for the return of assata, who fled
the country in the 80's. a million dollar reward calling her a terrorist.
common prety much sums up the truth in this song."

Ask the President if Assata Shakur is a Political Prisoner Too 5/1/2009 Black
America Web: "Ah, political prisoners in Cuba! Is Obama sure he wants to
go down that road? It might get kind of embarrassing for us here in the
United States. What if the Cubans ask, rightly, “What happens to Assata
Shakur and other Americans now residing in Cuba who were political
prisoners in the United States?” And make no mistake about it, Shakur –
also known as Joanne Chesimard – was a political prisoner when she was
held by the state of New Jersey."

President Obama Asked to Extradite Assata Shakur 4/23/2009 Blackademics: "Nothing
enrages the American injustice system more than an escaped slave. When
Harriet Tubman was liberating Black people from institutionalized
genocide, rape and servitude, the state offered a reward of $40,000 to any
bounty hunter who could bring her to “justice.” And if you think $40,000
goes a long way now, imagine what it did in 1875. Tubman was so vigorously
desired by the state, not only because she broke the laws of chattel
slavery (she was legally a thief, who ran away with thousands of dollars
worth of what they considered to be stolen property), but also because she
represented a revolutionary ideology."

Happy Birthday Assata Campaign 3/28/2008 Scheme: "On November 2 2006,
Mos Def, Sonia Sanchez and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement helped to
kick off the Happy Birthday Assata Campaign, a national mobilization
effort to commemorate the revolutionary icon’s 60th birthday. Well over
one hundred supporters gathered at SEIU 1199 in midtown Manhattan to rally
support for Assata and for the many political prisoners detained
throughout the United States and abroad."

Letter from Assata on her 60th Birthday Celebration 3/27/2008 HOA: "I
am 60 years old and I am proud to be one of those people who stood up
against the ruthless, evil, imperialist policies of the U.S. government.
In my lifetime I have opposed the war against the Vietnamese people, the
illegal contras – war in Nicaragua, the illegal coup in Chile, the
invasion of Haiti and of Granada, and every other illegal, immoral and
genocidal war the U.S. government has ever waged. I have never been a
criminal and I never will be one. I am 60 years old and in spite of
government repression, in spite of the media’s lies and distortions, in
spite of the U.S, government’s COINTELPRO Program to criminalize and
demonize political opponents, I feel proud to count myself as someone who
believes in peace and believes in freedom. I am proud to have been a
member of the Black Panther Party although the U.S. government continues
try to distort history and continues to persecute ex-members of the Black
Panther Party. Just recently, the U.S. government has indicted and
arrested 8 ex-Black Panthers in a case that was dismissed 30 years ago.
The case was dismissed some 30 years ago when it became obvious that the
most vicious forms of extreme torture were used to extract false
confessions from some of the so-called defendants."

Assata Shakur 3/26/2008 Gazette, Langston University: "On Common's
"Like Water for Chocolate" album, released in 2000, there is a song titled
"A Song for Assata," which shines light on Shakur's life. There are also
many videos available on Youtube.com that depicts this strong, yet unheard
of woman whose resilience led to her freedom."

An Interview with His Lawyer, Stephen Bingham - The Murder of George
Jackson 2/23/2006 Counterpunch: "I suspect the governor himself was
relatively clueless about who George was, as he was winning bodybuilding
contests in the 1970s and beginning his decidedly unpolitical acting
career. The question is who were the minions in the state Department of
Justice (run by top Democcrat Bill Lockyer) or the governor's office
itself who decided it was important to mention Williams' admiration for
George, as well as Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Assata Shakur,
Geronimo Pratt, Ramona and John Africa, Leonard Peltier and Dhoruba
al-Mujahid. It's significant that these people of color with highly
advanced political agendas--whether you agree with the politics of some of
them or not--are clearly viewed as a real threat to our governmental
institutions, even though several are still in prison. That the governor
refused clemency in part because Williams admired these people makes his
execution one of the most political executions in modern history."

Assata Shakur: The government's terrorist is our community's heroine 10/2/2005 Socialism
and Liberation: by Mos Def - "For those of us who either remember the
state of the union in the 1960s and 1970s or have studied it, when we
consider Assata Shakur living under political asylum in Cuba, we believe
that nation is exercising its political sovereignty, and in no way
harboring a terrorist. Cubans sees Assata as I, and many others in my
community do: as a woman who was and is persecuted for her political
beliefs. When the federal government raised the bounty on her head this
May 2, one official declared that Assata was merely "120 pounds of money."
For many of us in the Black community she could never be so reduced. For
many of us in the Black community, she was and remains, to use her own
words, an "escaped slave," a heroine, not unlike Harriet Tubman."

Assata
- Rap Icons Godmother Still Gaining Support 8/25/2005 Thug Life
Army: "Dear Mayor Palmer: Let me introduce myself by saying that ASSATA
SHAKUR is my sister, friend, and comrade in the struggle for human rights
of all oppressed people. When three “Freedom Fighters” boldly took action
in 1979 and entered the Clinton Correctional Facility and liberated Sister
ASSATA from the chains and shackles of her jailers, I rejoiced. I was
proud to be apart of a generation of young African Americans that were
courageous and committed enough to go up against America and didn’t give a
damn about odds."

Assata Shakur’s appeal attorney explains her case Lies are being
manufactured to convert Assata into a terrorist to justify the $1 million
bounty on her head by Evelyn A. Williams 8/10/2005 SF Bay View: "New
Jersey State Assembly Speaker Albio Sires, a longtime member of CANF
(Cuban American National Foundation, representing Cuban exiles), said: “If
Cuba’s citizenry could be informed of the $1 million bounty and the real
story of Chesimard’s crimes, there is an increased likelihood of her being
brought to justice…. We want the Cuban people to know the real story about
Joanne Chesimard and not the deceptive representation advanced by the
Castro regime. We want people to realize that she is not a hero and she is
really a violent criminal who is wanted for killing a state trooper and
escaping justice.” By falsely asserting that Assata shot Foerster in the
head while he lay helplessly on the ground, killing him “execution style,”
the U.S. Justice Department hopes to strip Assata of any of the sympathy
and political support she now receives in the United States and from the
citizens of Cuba. By labeling her a cold-blooded cop killer, the hope is
that the real circumstances of the NJ Turnpike as well as all the years
prior to that event, during which time Assata was relentlessly hunted with
the stated purpose of killing her on sight for having committed crimes of
which the government knew she was innocent, will be forgotten."

Black August ‘05 Tribute to Assata, Mumia, Evelyn Williams, Esq., Lynne
Stewart, Esq., and Zolo Azania by Sundiata Acoli 8/10/2005 SF Bay
View: "Lynne Stewart, Esq., our White comrade and a 65-year-old
grandmother, not only commands our highest respect, but her present
situation also demands our strongest support. She has been on the front
lines over 30 years unflinchingly defending political people of all
nationalities, particularly Black and other people of color, and oppressed
peoples in general. Because of Lynne’s staunch defense of unpopular
political defendants, her own freedom now hangs in the balance. She was
recently convicted of violating “special administrative measures” in her
defense of the blind Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and now faces up to
30 years in prison. Her sentencing date is scheduled for Sept. 23, 2005.
Lynne urgently needs all the “letters to the judge” that we can write to
try to convince him that Lynne’s age (65 and counting), her 30 years of
service to communities that rarely see vigorous lawyering, and the
weakness of the government’s charges and proof should lead to a sentence
of no incarceration."

Rap
Icons Godmother Target of Amendment 6/18/2005 Thug Life Army: "Many
prominent and influential politicians, hip-hop and rap artists and
community groups have stepped forward to show support for Assata and her
struggle. There is an attempt to further the kidnapping of Tupac’s
godmother and political activist Assata Shakur. We received the following
from a member of the Congressional Black Caucus today."

Congress attempts to
further Assata Kidnapping, 6/1505 6/15/2005 HOA: "Reps. Vito J.
Fossella, R-N.Y., and Peter T. King, R-N.Y. will offer an amendment
providing that, of the funds made available for diplomatic and consular
affairs for the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, an appropriate amount of
such funds would be used to disseminate the names of fugitives, such as
Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur) and William Morales, who are residing in
Cuba, as well as provide any rewards for their capture."

Rocky's
policy on Cuba earns anger of Eastern mayors 6/14/2005 Salt Lake
Tribune: "In seeking to pass a resolution to normalize U.S. relations with
Cuba, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson faced indignation - not from
Cuban exiles, but from New Jersey mayors. During the U.S. Conference of
Mayors annual meeting last week in Chicago, four mayors from the Garden
State attacked the resolution while it was being discussed in the
conference's international affairs committee, The Trentonian reports.
Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer told the newspaper the resolution was a "slap in
the face to law enforcement." The reason: A woman [Assata Shakur] who
killed a New Jersey trooper in 1973 escaped from prison and fled to Cuba,
where she has been protected from extradition, according to the newspaper.
The mayors' committee eventually tabled Anderson's proposal, which says
the U.S. economic embargo harms children and the elderly and that the
policy has further isolated Cuba. It "urges the normalization of
diplomatic and economic relations." "

Assata Shakur Offers Reward 6/8/2005 Rap News: “If Assata’s the
Bandit Queen of the Black Liberation Army, then Donald Rumsfeld is the
Bandit Queen of the U.S. Army,” declared Mary Margaret McNurtz, president
of the new Hands Off Rummy Brigade, which has also come up with its own
attractive t-shirt."

Castro Strikes
a Nerve 6/3/2005 Alternet: Assata, Posada, the Cuban 5, and the US
criminal justice system, by Soffiyah Elijah, Deputy director of the
Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School.

ASSATA: THE STAKES ARE RAISED, WEEK OF MAY 26-JUNE 1, 2005 5/31/2005 Wilmington
Journal: a reprint of the Final Call article, with this note - "EDITOR’S
NOTE: Assata is the granddaughter of the late Mr. Frank and Mrs. Lula Hill
of Wilmington. She spent many summers here in Wilmington In the 500 block
of South Seventh Street."

National Conference of Black Lawyers 5/27/2005 Black
Commentator: "The announcement that a $1 million bounty has been placed on
the head of exiled freedom fighter Assata Shakur sends a clear,
unmistakable message that the U.S. government will stop at nothing to
perpetuate the systemic denial of the most basic human rights of African
people born and/or residing in the Americas. The National Conference of
Black Lawyers (NCBL) demands that the U.S. government immediately withdraw
the bounty offer, and permanently cease its pursuit of Assata Shakur as
such is both illegal and unjustifiable under international human rights
laws."

Mos
Def, Talib Kweli, dead prez Speak Up For Assata Shakur 5/26/2005 All
Hip Hop: "Rappers Mos Def, Talib Kweli and dead prez spoke in support of
former Black Panther Assata Shukur at a press conference yesterday (May
25) at New York’s City Hall. Charles Barron, councilman from Brooklyn's
East New York called the meeting as a response to a million dollar bounty
on the political fugitive, who now resides in Cuba. Barron also introduced
a resolution that seeks presidential clemency for Shakur, claiming that
she the victim of “trumped-up charges and a kangaroo court with an
all-white jury.” Both Mos and Kweli stated that they feel Shakur was
unjustly convicted for the murder of a police officer in 1973."

Barron Seeks
Clemency for Cop Killer 5/26/2005 NY Sun: "Infuriating
law-enforcement organizations and his colleagues, a City Council member,
Charles Barron, introduced a resolution yesterday urging clemency for a
convicted and escaped cop-killer, Assata Shakur, formerly known as Joanne
Chesimard."

N.Y. Politicians, Black Activists Rally in Support of Assata Shakur 5/25/2005 Black
America Web: "Several members of the New York City Council and black
community activists assembled on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan
Wednesday to condemn the federal government’s $1 million bounty on Black
Liberation Army member Joanne Chesimard, who is now known as Assata
Shakur, and living in Cuba."

Hip-Hop Artist Get Involved For Assata 5/24/2005 Thug Life Army: "On
Wednesday, May 25th at 1:30PM, Brooklyn City Councilmember Charles Barron,
prominent hip-hop artists and community groups will hold a press
conference on the steps of City Hall condemning a one-million-dollar
bounty offered May 2nd for the capture of exiled Black Liberation fighter
Assata Shakur; the godmother of the late rap icon Tupac Shakur. “I’m
infuriated that a bounty has been put on her, placing her in danger,” said
Councilmember Barron – who called for Wednesday’s press conference – “She
is a shero to our community, its long overdue for her to receive clemency
and come home.” "

Assata and Posada: Two different colors, two different stories 5/18/2005 SF
Bay View: "The generally unacknowledged factor of Posada and Bosch’s
blowing up of the Cubana airliner, however, is this. If tourists to Cuba
take the time to visit Havana’s Sport’s Palace, guides will inevitably
take them to the memorial wall. From there, visitors will be greeted by
row after row of young, mostly Black faces staring back at them –
photographs of Cuba’s Olympic athletes who were returning from the Pan
American Games in Venezuela and were on board the airliner Posada and
Bosch likely bombed. Therefore, by putting a $1 million bounty on Sister
Shakur, who, they say, is linked to the killing of one white person, while
allowing Posada and Bosch remain free in the U.S. after killing at least
73 mostly Black people, the U.S. has once again exposed itself as a
government that continues to capitulate to and accommodate itself to
racism."

Assata: The stakes are raised 5/16/2005 Final Call: "Attorney General
Alberto Gonzalez, according to Newsday, personally approved the money from
the Justice Department. It will be paid for information leading to her
safe capture, but not if she is killed in the process."

Official Response
to Announcement of $1 million Bounty and the Listing of ASSATA SHAKUR on
Domestic Terrorist Watch List 5/15/2005 HOA: "Former New Jersey
Governor, Christie Todd Whitman, curried political favor with the state’s
police when she announced a bounty of $25,000 for Assata and later doubled
it to $50,000. She was duly rewarded by President Bush who appointed her
in 2001 to be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. The bounty
was quietly increased by the FBI to a million dollars as it crept around
the country looking for relatives, friends and associates to enlist in its
scheme to kidnap Assata and return her to the United States. Time and time
again, the FBI offered them a million dollars for their services. To some,
they stated that there was no limit to how much they would pay for
Assata’s return."

New
Campaign For Rap Icon's Godmother 5/6/2005 Thug Life Army: "The
following information is provided by The Talking Drum Collective of Stone
Mountain, Ga. The Hands Off Assata Campaign is a coming together of
organizations and individuals who are outraged by the heightened attempts
by the federal government, congress of the united states and the State of
New Jersey to illegally force thru kidnapping a return of Assata Shakur
from Cuba to the plantation United States…"

From Assata to Emmett, Timing of Old Cases’ New Emphasis Questioned 5/4/2005 Black
America Web: "But Rev. Jesse Jackson and other civil rights activists
question the timing and the motives of the Bush administration's efforts,
maintaining that when it comes to the nation's priorities. there are more
pressing issues to be considered. “It is interesting how they are exhuming
these old cases,” Jackson told BlackAmericaWeb.com Wednesday afternoon.
“While they are planning to exhume Emmett Till's body to find the killers
50 years later, they are refusing to deal with current issues -- like a
five-year-old being handcuffed in St. Petersburg or a man shot four times
by the police in Chicago.”"

$1,000,000 bounty for Assata Shakur 5/4/2005 SF Bay View: “I’m going
to jump on it,” said professional bounty hunter Louis Faccone, who
attended the press conference Monday announcing the reward. “My guys can
get (into Cuba) in the middle of the night by boat from the Florida Keys.”

Commentary: NJ
Troopers Have Selective Amnesia About How They Victimized People Like
Assata Shakur 5/3/2005 Black America Web: "I’m dubious because the
New Jersey State Police had then –– and still have –– a reputation for
being notoriously racist. In many cases, stopping someone for a busted
tail light tends to be more of an excuse to target someone, namely black
people, for harassment rather than to advise them to get the light fixed.
And while neither I nor any of the white people who convicted Shakur were
there when Foerster was shot, it’s rather interesting that up until that
time, she only had a record of organizing free breakfast programs and
other community empowerment programs, and not a record of provoking
violence. I’m dubious because, as much as people like Fuentes are calling
for justice for Foerster, some of their own are still doing the same
injustices to black people as they did in Shakur’s day. In 1998, troopers
on that same New Jersey turnpike upon which Shakur was stopped shot and
wounded three unarmed black and Latino men whom they suspected were
carrying drugs. They weren’t. The next year, the New Jersey Attorney
General’s Office issued a report that found that racial profiling by the
troopers was rampant. And as recent as 2003, the Philadelphia Inquirer
reported that internal affairs officers for the New Jersey State Police
looking into racial and sexual harassment allegations found a T-shirt with
the letters LOD. The initials, which stand for “Lords of Discipline,”
represent a secret society that many black and women officers say is
sexist and white supremacist. I’m also dubious because Shakur was
convicted by an all-white jury –– a jury that was, at that time, probably
was more consumed with administering punishment to black people than in
administering justice to them. Some bounty hunter in Florida said he plans
to try and capture Shakur. I hope he fails. I hope he fails not only
because I believe that Shakur was wrongly convicted, but because I believe
it is the height of hypocrisy for the Bush administration to put her on
the same terrorist watch list as Osama bin Laden. It is also hypocritical
because right here in the United States, we are harboring a number of
fugitives and murderers from other countries. And it’s sheer political
lunacy to compare Shakur to bin Laden; she hasn’t killed 3,000 people, nor
does she have the capability of carrying out terrorist attacks against the
United States."

U.S. Government Declares $1 Million Bounty For Assata Shakur, Tupac's
Godmother 5/2/2005 All Hip Hop News: "Rappers like Paris and Common
have written sympathetic, reflective songs about Assata [“Assata’s Song”
and “A Song For Assata” respectively]. Common explained his support of
Shakur. “The reason I was even connected to this woman is because of her
humanity and her passion for people,” the Chicago native told
AllHipHop.com. “And when I met her on a Black August trip four years ago
and I learned she was innocent and that all the pain and hate that had
been placed upon her, she'd overcome. There's no way than anyone in this
world should want to harm her. She’s such a beautiful human being.”"

From exile with love - Former Black Panther Assata Shakur speaks to
America from Cuba 6/11/2002 Final Call: "Final Call Staff Writer Nisa
Islam Muhammad traveled to Cuba with a group of 15 journalists under the
guidance of DeWayne Wickham and the Institute for Advanced Journalism
Studies. They are documenting the African influence in the Americas. While
there, she was granted an exclusive interview with exiled former Black
Panther Assata Shakur."

My interview with Assata Shakur 6/11/2002 Final Call: "I am moved by
her commitment as expressed in a poem she wrote: "It is our duty to fight
for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and
support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Attorneys Visit With Sundiata/Reflections on Organizing! 12/23/2001 Afrikan
Identity: Sundiata, along with many other political prisoners, was put in
lockdown after 9-11. He is still heavily restricted, as per his attorney -
"Sundiata was not informed that his social visits and mail was reinstated,
so Soffiyah believe the administration may have lied to her. i'm
encouraging everyone to continue to write Sundiata. He is only let out of
his cage upon visits, he showers in the cage as well, anyone thats on his
visiting list that can, please go and visit with him." Sundiata was in the
car with Assata when they were assaulted by a
Nazi cell in the NJ State
Police.

HER NAME IS ASSATA!! 7/21/2001 Afrikan I-dentity: "[Mr. Dunbar:] Your
masters may find your bootlicking and pathetic stance becoming and
reassuring, but we, the people who continue to resist, do not…"

What
was Al Sharpton doing in Cuba? 12/1/2000 AfroCubaWeb: "What was the
Reverend Al doing in Cuba? As is clear from his recent forays, he is
trying to build up a national reputation. The news about the hip-hop
ventures may also be seen as an effort to restore credibility on the
streets and on the left. The Reverend Al appears to have gained ground in
erasing his earlier career as an FBI informant, having lunch with Fidel
Castro and organizing a large hip-hop exchange with InterScope records,
among others. However, the road has sometimes been rocky: folks in Detroit
prevented him from achieving much there by posting these Newsday articles
below from 1988. Basically they outline how he was an FBI informant and
tried to set up Assata Shakur for capture."

Is Cuba A “Racial Democracy?” 3/10/2000 Planete Afrique: "Columbia
University historian Manning Marable visits Cuba frequently, meeting with
Afro-Cuban leaders and American expatriates like former Black Panther
Assata Shakur, who sought asylum in Cuba after escaping from prison on the
United States. “Since Afro-Cubans have been at the bottom of the social
and class hierarchy before the revolution, they have gained the most from
the vast societal changes which have occurred,” Marable says. “A
quarter-century after the revolution, employment, infant mortality, and
life expectancy rates were better off for Blacks in Cuba than for Blacks
anywhere in the world, even in the United States.” Although supportive of
the Revolution’s progress, Marable is aware that it’s difficult to
eradicate “old habits and attitudes” in a society in which slavery existed
for centuries. “The struggle to destroy racism still remains a central
challenge in Cuba,” he admits. “But on balance, the Cubans are far more
honest about their shortcomings, and have achieved greater equality for
Blacks than we have in the U.S.”"

Earlier this month the federal government issued a statement in which
they labeled Joanne Chesimard, known to most in the Black community as
Assata Shakur, as a domestic terrorist. In so doing, they also increased
the bounty on her head from $150,000 to an unprecedented $1,000,000.
Viewed through the lens of U.S. law enforcement, Shakur is an escaped
cop-killer. Viewed through the lens of many Black people, including me,
she is a wrongly convicted woman and a hero of epic proportions.

My first memory of Assata Shakur was the "Wanted" posters all
over my Brooklyn neighborhood. They said her name was Joanne Chesimard,
that she was a killer, an escaped convict, and armed and dangerous. They
made her sound like a super-villain, like something out of a comic book.
But even then, as a child, I couldn't believe what I was being told. When
I looked at those posters and the mug shot of a slight, brown, high-cheekboned
woman with a full afro, I saw someone who looked like she was in my
family, an aunt, a mother. She looked like she had soul. Later, as a
junior high school student, when I read her autobiography, Assata, I would
discover that not only did she have soul, she also had immeasurable heart,
courage and love. And I would come to believe that that very heart and
soul she possessed was exactly why Assata Shakur was shot, arrested,
framed and convicted of the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper.

There are some undisputed facts about the case. On May 2nd, 1973, Assata
Shakur, a Black Panther, was driving down the New Jersey State Turnpike
with two companions, Zayd Shakur and Sundiata Acoli. The three were pulled
over, ostensibly for a broken tail light. A gun battle ensued, why and how
it started is unclear. But the aftermath is not. Trooper Werner Forester
and Zayd Shakur lay dead. Sundiata Acoli escaped [he was captured two days
later]. And Assata was shot and arrested. At trial, three neurologists
would testify that the first gunshot shattered her clavicle and the second
shattered the median nerve in her right hand. That testimony proved that
she was sitting with her hands raised when she was fired on by police.
Further testimony proved that no gun residue was found on either of her
hands, nor were her finger prints found on any of the weapons located at
the scene. Nevertheless, Shakur was convicted by an all-White jury and
sentenced to life in prison. Six years and six months to the day that she
was arrested, and aided by friends, Shakur escaped from Clinton Women's
Prison in New Jersey. As a high school student I remember seeing posters
all around the Brooklyn community I lived in that read: Assata Shakur is
Welcome Here. In 1984, she surfaced in Cuba and was granted political
asylum by Fidel Castro.

There are those who believe that being convicted of a crime makes you
guilty. But that imposes an assumption of infallibility upon our criminal
justice system. When Assata Shakur was convicted of killing Werner
Forester, not only had the Black Panther Party been labeled by then F.B.I.
director, J. Edgar Hoover, as "the greatest internal threat" to
American security, but Assata herself had been thoroughly criminalized in
the minds of the American public; she'd been charged in six different
crimes ranging from attempted murder to bank robbery, and her acquittal or
dismissal of the charges outright notwithstanding, to the average citizen,
it seemed she must be guilty of something. And she was. She was guilty of
calling for a shift in power in America, and for racial and economic
justice. Included on a short list of the many people who have made that
call and were either criminalized, terrorized, killed or blacklisted are
Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King, Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, Medgar
Evers and Ida B. Wells.

Perhaps what is most insulting about the government's latest attack on
Assata is that while they vigorously pursue her extradition, a few years
ago using it as a bargaining chip for lifting the embargo itself, they
have been decidedly lackadaisical in pursuing the extradition to Venezuela
of an admitted terrorist, Florida resident Luis Posada Carriles. Carriles
is likely responsible for blowing up a Cuban airline in 1976, an act which
claimed the lives of some 73 innocent civilians.

For those of us who either remember the state of the union in the 1960s
and 1970s or have studied it, when we consider Assata Shakur living under
political asylum in Cuba, we believe that nation is exercising its
political sovereignty, and in no way harboring a terrorist. Cubans sees
Assata as I, and many others in my community do: as a woman who was and is
persecuted for her political beliefs. When the federal government raised
the bounty on her head this May 2, one official declared that Assata was
merely "120 pounds of money." For many of us in the Black
community she could never be so reduced. For many of us in the Black
community, she was and remains, to use her own words, an "escaped
slave," a heroine, not unlike Harriet Tubman.

MOS DEF, an actor and rapper, is currently starring in The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy.

Cuban President Fidel Castro
leads at least a million Cubans in a march past the U.S.
diplomatic mission in Havana Tuesday, May 17, to demand the arrest
of accused airliner bomber Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile and
former CIA collaborator who was seeking political asylum in the
U.S. “Bush, fascist, capture the terrorist,” the crowd
chanted. Later that day, Posada was detained by U.S. customs and
immigration police.

Photo: Mariana Bazo, Reuters

If there is another set of opposing circumstances
besides that which involves sister Black revolutionary Assata Shakur on
the one hand and Cuban exile terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando
Bosch on the other, that more clearly dramatizes the hypocrisy, cynicism
and racist double standard of contemplated justice on the part of U.S. law
enforcement agencies, it does not come to mind.

Shakur, you will recall, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the
1973 shooting death of a New Jersey state patrolman, though evidence
submitted by the prosecution clearly showed she had already been twice
wounded when the patrolman was shot. This begs the question, “How could
someone already grievously wounded then deliberately shoot and kill
another? Wouldn’t some form of self-defense be involved if Shakur
actually did the shooting? – which is not at all clear in the minds of
many. In fact some say it was an ambush on the Panthers conducted by the
New Jersey State Police.

Shakur later escaped and has been residing in Cuba for the past two and
a half decades. Earlier this month the U.S. Justice Department placed a $1
million bounty on her head.

Meanwhile, Luis Posada Carriles is pleasantly walking the streets of
Miami, Florida [until yesterday, when he was arrested by federal
authorities – ed.] while the same Justice Department, that says it wants
to capture Shakur, ponders whether or not to extend to him political
asylum, as it did a number of years ago, at the behest of President Bush
Sr., for his main terrorist partner, Orlando Bosch.

Posada is wanted throughout the Western Hemisphere for a laundry list
of crimes, many to which he has admitted. But the crime that heads the
list is the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner in which all 73 persons on
board were killed. Numerous internationally respected jurists believe he
and Bosch planned the bombing.

The generally unacknowledged factor of Posada and Bosch’s blowing up
of the Cubana airliner, however, is this.

If tourists to Cuba take the time to visit Havana’s Sport’s Palace,
guides will inevitably take them to the memorial wall. From there,
visitors will be greeted by row after row of young, mostly Black faces
staring back at them – photographs of Cuba’s Olympic athletes who were
returning from the Pan American Games in Venezuela and were on board the
airliner Posada and Bosch likely bombed.

Therefore, by putting a $1 million bounty on Sister Shakur, who, they
say, is linked to the killing of one white person, while allowing Posada
and Bosch remain free in the U.S. after killing at least 73 mostly Black
people, the U.S. has once again exposed itself as a government that
continues to capitulate to and accommodate itself to racism.

However cynical and hypocritical this stand on the part of the Bush
administration may appear to be, in fact it could not be otherwise. Posada
and Bosch are Washington’s creations, nurtured and cultivated in what
was at one time the world’s largest, most active CIA station – the one
in Miami, geared and focused to overthrow Fidel Castro.

In the aftermath of the Cubana airline bombing, Posada and Bosch were
“detained” by Venezuelan authorities in a minimum-security prison for
nine years, afraid that if they spoke, the Caracas government would be
implicated. Eventually, in 1985, Posada and Bosch escaped, and many of
their critics claim they were aided by Otto Reich, the right wing Cuban
exile who until recently was an employee of the Bush administration under
Condoleezza Rice when she headed the National Security Council and who at
the time was U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. Under Rice, it will be
recalled, Reich attempted to help engineer the failed coup in Venezuela
against its revolutionary president, Hugo Chavez.

Several years ago, Posada boasted to the New York Times he had
participated in the bombing of several trendy hotel sites in Cuba that
resulted in the killing of an Italian tourist. However his latest crime,
for which he was arrested and convicted, was the attempted assassination
of Castro while he was in Panama in November of 2000. Posada, along with
several other known terrorists, was arrested while in possession of
plastic explosives in an apartment directly across the street from where
Castro was scheduled to speak. He was then sentenced to prison for eight
years by the Panamanian courts.

Nothing stands still long for anti-Castro terrorists in the U.S.
however. Late last year, outgoing Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, who
maintains a U.S. residence in Key Biscayne, Fla., and also maintains close
relations with conservative political interests in southern Florida, in
virtually her last hours in office, pardoned Posada and the others for
“humanitarian” reasons.

As of this writing, Posada and Bosch enjoy life in Miami, staying out
of sight and selling paintings at tony cheese and wine tastings, while
sister Assata languishes in Cuba with a $1 million pricetag on her head,
apparently for no other reason than her skin is black. In fact and deed,
the two Miami Cubans have been pardoned.

Though Assata leads a good and so far peaceful life in Cuba, her
friends cannot but fail to see that wistful longing in her eyes for home
and friends. When she lets her revolutionary guard down, it’s clear, it
seems, she misses home.

Newsday
May 10, 2005

HAVANA -- Cuban President Fidel Castro on Tuesday appeared to defend convicted police-killer Assata Shakur, saying the woman who fled to Cuba is innocent and a victim of persecution.

Castro did not refer to the woman, who changed her name from Joanne Chesimard, by name, but his remarks described the woman who was placed on a U.S. government terrorist watch list on May 2.

Speaking in a lengthy televised appearance, Castro referred to the woman as a fighter for Afro-American rights and said U.S. officials "want to present her as a terrorist." He called it
"an infamous lie."

Shakur fled to Cuba after escaping from prison in 1979. A New Jersey jury convicted the Black Liberation Army member of shooting state trooper Werner Foerster as he lay on the ground in 1973.

Castro called the death "the accident in which a policeman died." Shakur denied shooting the officer.

New Jersey authorities, whose records still refer to her as Chesimard, on May 2 raised the reward for her capture from $150,000 to $1 million.

Castro suggested that the action was meant to divert attention from Cuba's demand that U.S. officials arrest Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted in Venezuela on charges of involvement in blowing up a civilian Cuban jetliner in 1976, killing 73 people.

The war on terrorism took a strange turn last week when the Justice
Department ratcheted up the bounty on Assata Shakur, a black activist
and convicted murderer who has been holed up in Cuba for nearly a
quarter century.

Shakur escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979,
two years after a jury found her guilty of the 1973 killing of state
trooper Werner Foerster during a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.
At the time, Shakur — whose given name is Joanne Chesimard — and the
two male passengers in the car were members of the Black Liberation Army,
an offshoot of the Black Panther Party.

Last week, the federal government raised its reward
for the capture of Shakur from $50,000 to $1 million.

"We believe that this increased reward, and
the placing of her name on terrorism lists will bring opportunities for
the capture and return" of Shakur, New Jersey police chief Rick
Fuentes said in a press release. It also suggests that the federal
government has a double standard when it comes to bringing
"terrorists" to justice.

How do you define terrorist?

Though Shakur has been branded a terrorist, federal
officials have shown no such zeal for bringing to justice Luis Posada
Carriles, a Cuban exile whose terrorist credentials are far more
authentic.

Posada, according to his lawyer, slipped into this
country last month and is in South Florida awaiting a decision on his
request for political asylum. That's right, this guy, who was convicted in
2000 for his role in a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, wants the Bush
administration to harbor him.

The Cuban and Venezuelan governments also accuse
Posada of involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed
73 people and a 1977 Havana hotel bombing that killed an Italian tourist.

But instead of sending the FBI to Florida to flush
out Posada and cart him off for trial in Venezuela, which has requested
his extradition, the Justice Department waffles. It won't say what it will
do if Posada is apprehended. Rather than offer a bounty for Posada, who in
1998 admitted his role in a series of Cuban hotel bombings (he later
recanted), the Bush administration has only acknowledged it has received
his asylum request. That it was not summarily rejected is outrageous, but
not surprising.

Orlando Bosch, a Cuban exile who for many years was
a close associate of Posada, has lived in South Florida since 1990, when
President George H.W. Bush stopped the Justice Department from deporting
him. At the time, the Justice Department concluded that the only country
willing to take Bosch was Cuba, the main target of his terrorist acts. The
Bush administration balked, fearing that he might be mistreated.

Advocate of terrorism?

The deportation order that was overturned said
Bosch had been "resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist
violence" for 30 years. In 1968, Bosch was convicted of firing a
bazooka at a Polish freighter in Miami's harbor. Like Posada, Bosch is
wanted in Cuba and Venezuela, which suspect him of involvement in the
Cuban airliner attack.

What bothers me is that while these men, whose
suspected crimes fit the State Department's definition of terrorism,
haven't set off Justice Department alarm bells, Shakur is being treated
like a disciple of Osama bin Laden. If she killed Foerster (her attorney
argues the evidence suggests otherwise), Shakur should be returned to New
Jersey to spend her life in prison.

By not proclaiming that it will arrest Posada on
sight and deport him, the Bush administration caters to those in the Cuban
exile community who view him as a freedom fighter — and undermines its
leadership of the fight against terrorism.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.

Commentary: NJ Troopers Have Selective Amnesia
About How They
Victimized People Like Assata Shakur

The other day, a colonel with the New Jersey State Police said
something that ought to rankle any black person who has even the vaguest
familiarity of how police brutality and racial injustice once had a vise
grip on the nation.

“We have pretty long institutional memories,” one Col. Rick
Fuentes said during a news conference to announce that the reward for
the capture of former Black Panther Assata Shakur, who was doing time in
prison for the slaying of a trooper when she escaped in 1979, had been
upped from $150,000 to $1 million.

Fuentes and the rest of his gang might have long institutional
memories about what Shakur was convicted of doing to one of their own.
But they –– as well as the Justice Department –– have selective
amnesia about what they were doing to black people like her during that
time.

For decades now, law enforcement authorities have been obsessed with
capturing Shakur, who has lived in Cuba since 1986. Formerly known as
Joanne Chesimard, two troopers stopped her and two companions for a
broken tail light on the New Jersey State Turnpike in 1973. A gunfight
ensued, and when it was over one state trooper, Werner Foerster, was
dead, as was one of Shakur’s companions, Zayd Shakur. She was severely
wounded.

What happened afterward was typical in the era of COINTELPRO ––
the FBI’s crooked, covert operation intended to destabilize black
movements and their leaders –– and out-and-out racism.

Shakur was tried six different times on various, flimsy charges. She
was acquitted each time. But an all-white jury ultimately found her
guilty in the murders of Foerster and Zayd Shakur. They found her guilty
in spite of the fact that forensics experts testified that she was shot
when she was in a position of surrender and that no evidence existed to
show that she had fired a weapon.

But the jury, them being white and all, convicted her anyway. But
Shakur continued to proclaim her innocence and in 1979, decided she
wasn’t going to do any more time for a crime she didn’t commit. So
she escaped.

I doubt that Shakur killed Foerster. The forensics testimony, as well
as the context of the times, is what makes me dubious.

And as a black person in America, I’d be a fool to ignore context.

I’m dubious because throughout the late 1950s to the early 1970s,
the FBI targeted black revolutionaries like Shakur for ruination. They
did it through flagrant abuses of power, such as planting evidence,
weapons and informants. One need only look to the case of Geronimo ji
jaga Pratt, a Black Panther who was fingered as the killer of a white
woman by Julius “Julio” Butler, another Panther who, as it turned
out, was an FBI informant –– and a liar. Pratt spent 27 years in
prison before the late Johnnie Cochran, his longtime attorney, helped
him get a new trial, and the judge declared that he had been sentenced
unfairly.

I’m dubious because the New Jersey State Police had then –– and
still have –– a reputation for being notoriously racist. In many
cases, stopping someone for a busted tail light tends to be more of an
excuse to target someone, namely black people, for harassment rather
than to advise them to get the light fixed. And while neither I nor any
of the white people who convicted Shakur were there when Foerster was
shot, it’s rather interesting that up until that time, she only had a
record of organizing free breakfast programs and other community
empowerment programs, and not a record of provoking violence.

I’m dubious because, as much as people like Fuentes are calling for
justice for Foerster, some of their own are still doing the same
injustices to black people as they did in Shakur’s day. In 1998,
troopers on that same New Jersey turnpike upon which Shakur was stopped
shot and wounded three unarmed black and Latino men whom they suspected
were carrying drugs. They weren’t. The next year, the New Jersey
Attorney General’s Office issued a report that found that racial
profiling by the troopers was rampant.

And as recent as 2003, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that
internal affairs officers for the New Jersey State Police looking into
racial and sexual harassment allegations found a T-shirt with the
letters LOD. The initials, which stand for “Lords of Discipline,”
represent a secret society that many black and women officers say is
sexist and white supremacist.

I’m also dubious because Shakur was convicted by an all-white jury
–– a jury that was, at that time, probably was more consumed with
administering punishment to black people than in administering justice
to them.

Some bounty hunter in Florida said he plans to try and capture Shakur.
I hope he fails. I hope he fails not only because I believe that Shakur
was wrongly convicted, but because I believe it is the height of
hypocrisy for the Bush administration to put her on the same terrorist
watch list as Osama bin Laden. It is also hypocritical because right
here in the United States, we are harboring a number of fugitives and
murderers from other countries. And it’s sheer political lunacy to
compare Shakur to bin Laden; she hasn’t killed 3,000 people, nor does
she have the capability of carrying out terrorist attacks against the
United States.

At the very least, Shakur ought to be guaranteed a new trial ––
complete with DNA evidence and all –– as a condition of her return.
But in the meantime, we need to focus on catching real terrorists. Not
someone like Shakur who was, for all practical purposes, a victim of the
racial terrorism that once existed against black people.

The kind of terrorism that has managed to escape Fuentes’
institutional memory.

EWING TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Authorities posted a $1 million reward for Black Liberation Army member Joanne Chesimard, who pumped two bullets
into the neck and head of a wounded New Jersey state trooper 32 years ago Monday.

Chesimard was convicted of the murder of Trooper Werner Foerster, but she escaped to Cuba and was granted political asylum after three
gunmen busted her out of what was then the Clinton Correctional Institution for Women in Hunterdon County in 1979.

Garden State officials have failed to pressure Cuba to hand over Chesimard, 57, who goes by the name Assata Shakur.

Foerster responded as backup when another trooper had stopped Chesimard and two companions for a faulty tail light on the New
Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick in 1973.

Shots soon rang out and Foerster was hit. As he lay on the ground, authorities said Chesimard took his gun and mortally shot him.

Her brother-in-law was killed in the gun battle and another man was arrested. Clark Squire is serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania
prison and was denied parole last August.

State Attorney General Peter C. Harvey, State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes and deputy U.S. Attorney Lee Solomon scheduled a
1:30 p.m. news conference to announce the reward and to add Chesimard's name to the FBI's domestic terrorist list.